Mara Sekenani

is the main point of access into the Maasai Mara for overland traffic arriving from Nairobi.

The landscape is largely hilly to the east, descending though dense acacia and leleshwa forest before opening out into open grasslands to the west.

It is the busiest and arguably least attractive part of the Mara, with lots of big hotel lodges, budget tented camps and apparently uncontrolled local development, all contributing to the substantial fleets of minibuses that saturate the area.

A substantial area to the northeast of the main gate has been incorporated into a conservancy, in an attempt by the few better quality lodges to provide a higher quality safari experience, but they remain very exposed when venturing into the main reserve.

Mara Sekenani is definitely our least favourite part of the Mara, not only for the reasons described above, but also because we find this eastern side of the main reserve rather less interesting from a safari perspective.

We therefore very rarely, if ever, recommend including it in trips. In fact we ever try to avoid driving through here when connecting other higher quality areas. We would love to see the park authority take a lead and try to tidy the place up.